Thank You
by Raedaline
Summary: Chise visits her mother's grave and her family. I wrote this awile ago and I am aware that it is poorly written. I'm too lazy to change it so here you go!


**Author's Notes**

 _I wrote this story a long time ago and I recently found it on my computer. This was my very first fan-fiction so don't be too harsh._

A small crowd of people gathered around a small grave. The grave was of a woman who died fifteen years ago. The crowd bowed to her remains in respect. Each one laying flowers and incense down on top of the mound of dirt. The flowers and bowls that were placed upon the grave were either crimson or emerald. Their bold colors glistening in the sunlight, just as the deceased woman's hair and eyes had in their memories.

The woman's end was a mystery to the mourners. They knew that her husband left with their son and left her to fend for herself and their young daughter. Shortly after, she killed herself, leaving her daughter in the hands of her relatives that were gathered there today. They remembered the young girl as a strange and timid child. So scared of her own shadow it seemed that she would cause trouble for her family. Unable to deal with the anxiety, they passed her around like an offering until one day, she disappeared never to be heard or seen from again. This day, was that little girls 20th birthday. Since she had no grave, they settled on using her mother's as the point of honoring and respecting the girl that they tossed around.

As the last member of the crowd placed their offering upon the grave and gave a small prayer, a breeze began to shift. It carried with it a warming embrace. The family member stood up and stepped back reveling in the embrace. Each one of the family members lifted their heads up to the sky and accepted the embrace that they felt belong to the little girl, Chise, and her mother Chika.

As their opened their eyes and brought their attention back down to the earth around them, a sound of echoing bells began to inch towards them. The bells were enchanting and surreal to the group. They looked around for the source of the sound when a young woman with eyes of emerald and hair of a crimson walked out of an archway of vines that had not been there before. The family was scared, but they didn't move. For her gaze was comforting and she made them feel as though that just by looking at her, their mournful souls had been comforted.

The girl walked towards the grave with a crimson staff in one hand and a strange crystal in the other that seemed to glow. A black hound walked slightly behind her, its head held high as it followed his graceful master. The crowd parted and let the girl through. She placed the crystal upon the grave and wavered. The attendees were taken aback as she began to shiver and tears began to well up, making her emerald eyes glisten more in the summer afternoon. She looked at the name engraved on the grave and gently placed her hand over it. She bowed her head and began to speak in a voice that sounded like the wind.

"Hello mother, I spoke to you long ago in a vision. However, that vision was only to the you I had let inside of my heart." She blinked slowly letting the tears steadily stream down her face.

The crowd that had been frozen in place understood that this girl was the one that they had passed around all of those years ago. The girl whose emerald eyes were full of pain and fear were now full of love and joy. No one said a word, for they knew that this moment had nothing to do with them. This was her time with her mother. No one moved to give her space for they wanted to hear more of her voice as it danced across their ears.

"I have decided that I would speak to what remains of you on this Earth, so I can make peace with you." Her hand began to caress her mother's name as she continued, "That day, the day that you cursed me by choking me and saying that you should never had given birth to me, my path had been set. The last time I saw you, you were falling backwards with tears following you and your mouth in a smile as they sealed my fate with an apology. I reached for you, but I could not pull you back."

Her hand lowered down the stone as she kneeled on the ground. Her white cloak enveloped her like a blanket but as the wind brushed the cloak to the side, a shiny round disk appeared from around her neck as it danced in the breeze. She laid her crimson staff down and her dog laid beside her. He slowly wrapped his long tail around her wrist as if he was holding her hand.

Looking back up at the name her hand faltered to the ground. She bunched up a mound of dirt and crushed it in her fist and continued, "the path that you had set me on was full of pain, my will to live began to slowly falter. I was the only one who could see the world around me and it terrified me that I was alone. I no longer had someone who could scare the monsters away. Finally, I decided that I either had to have a purpose for my life or die trying to obtain it. I sold myself not caring if I lived or died. I just wanted someone to want me for once." Her fist unclenched itself, the mound of dirt had now become a solid mass as it fell to the ground with a _'thud'_. She had closed her fist so tightly that her nails dug into the palm of her hand causing blood to surface on her pale skin. She laid her palm to the earth without reacting to the pain.

"When I was bought, I finally had a purpose. Not once was I treated like I was an object. Not once was I afraid of the man who bought me after he released me from my chains in front of my new home. He welcomed me into a world that I thought was terrifying. He taught me about why I was so fragile, and why the monsters were so attracted to me throughout the years. He became my teacher, my guardian, my father, my everything. He taught me of his world and I taught him of my world. A world that he had been roaming around in for centuries never understanding it or himself. I taught him how to be himself and he taught me how to be myself. The day that I married him, was the happiest day of my life. Everything that we had gone through together, the curses that had been set upon me, had been lifted. Your curse mother, was the first to be lifted when I discovered the meaning to my life." Her family was still as they listened, not wanting to break the moment for her.

They knew that the child was in pain when they cared for her, but they just couldn't deal for she was always in a world of her own. Tears of guilt began to stream down their faces as they finally understood all that this child had been through. Why she had never grown close to any of them, and why she never returned until today. Their tears were slow and steady as she stood up. She held out her bloodied hand and picked up the crimson staff that she had laid beside her. Her canine companion wrapped his tail around the staff binding his master and himself to the staff. She stood up and staked it in the dirt.

The head of the staff was a robin whose eyes were as colorful and rich as the purest body of water. It glistened, and it moved to the world around as its eyes began to glow. The crowd shifted their gaze to its eyes, stunned to what they were seeing as the staff began to raise from the ground by the girl and the black hound.

The tears on the young girl's face had stopped falling. She smiled at the glow of her robin's eyes, "This path that you sent me on is a path that I would never change. Even though it wound through pain and anguish, it led me to him, my Elias, to Ruth, Silky, Alice, Stella, Simon, Angelica, Lindel, Nevin…." Her voice chocked slightly at the last name, "people who truly cared and showed me the wonders of the world." Her brows furrowed as her voice began to echo in the breeze. "I can never forgive you for cursing me, but I am here so share with you my gratitude for letting me go. You letting me go allowed me to have everything that I had ever wanted. Everything that I have craved for in my life has begun to fall into place as my life finally begins and will continue for centuries to come by his side. Thank you, mother, may you rest in peace now. I'm okay."

The robin's eyes began to glow more fervently, and the air began to shift towards it. Everyone witnessed as the air filled with sparkles and her words echoing through the graveyard. As she let out a sigh, the crystal that had been lying on the dirt came to life. It began sprouting forth crystal flowers and grass. The song of the wind carried it up around to form an archway around the grave. Chise let her staff down and her companion unraveled his tail from his master's wrist. She turned and headed back towards the forest from which she had emerged. The wind dancing around her. A warm breezed brushed up against the crowd's faces as though the woman who was buried beneath them was kissing their cheeks with a smile and a tear.

As she entered back into her gateway and slowly faded away, her voice echoed through the earth and trees that now seemed to be singing along with her, "With these flowers from our past, may you finally see and meet the things that made us cower in fear in a new light. My essence will draw them and, along with you, will be at peace. Goodbye"

As the tip of her dog's tail disappeared into the gateway, the crowd felt as though they had been released from a trance. Each of them blinking away tears that they had shed during Chise's moment. The girl had grown up and her words were for them as well. Her words let them know that she was happy now and was where she belonged. The people that had observed her all understood that she would no longer be part of their lives. She was alive and well. As the crowd departed, the air began to return to it's original state and the shine that was hovering in the air began to fade away. No one returned to the grave after that day. They knew that both Chika and Chise were at peace now. One above ground, and one below ground.

As they arrived back at their homes and went to bed that night, all of them dreamed of the Emerald eyed girl that they saw that day smiling and whispering, "thank you" as she released them from their guilt for they had witnessed that the scared child from long ago was now long gone.


End file.
